Evil Dead: The Musical offers its audience squirts of fake blood that they might not have expected, but the musical's audience has offered its producers something they didn't expect: first-time theater goers.

Evil Dead: The Musical offers its audience squirts of fake blood that they might not have expected, but the musical’s audience has offered its producers something they didn’t expect: first-time theater goers.

“I thought that we were really focusing on a group of very sort of 20- to 30-somethings, but we rolled it out and I found lots of sort of closet Evil Dead supporters,”Â Steven Anderson, the Contemporary American Theatre Company, or CATCO’s creative director of the new musical, Evil Dead toldÂ WOSU’s theatre critic, Joy Reilly.

Evil Dead is about five college students who go to an abandoned cabin in the woods and unleash demons, Anderson said. The demons then pick off the students one by one. The hero, Ash Williams, must then save humanity from the demons.

At one point in the musical, a character’s hand is demon-possessed. Anderson said blood squirts everywhere when the character saws off his hand.

For moments like these, Anderson said there is a splash zone where “safe blood” hits the audience. The blood is made of chocolate.

“It’s an experience,” Anderson said.

Although Anderson said the show had been selling out in many other markets, he did say the show was not suitable for all ages.

“There is a certain amount of words that your mother would not allow you to say,” Anderson said. “So the strong language and, of course, the completely funny blood aspects of it would not make me say, ‘Oh, this is the perfect opportunity for my 10 year old.”

Evil Dead: The Musical runs from June 1 through 19 at the Riffe Center in Columbus, Ohio.